Not Quite Human
by Ensign Ricky Smith
Summary: An ex-Borg starts hearing the Collective again... What does the Queen want with her? Why is she reliving her assimalation in her sleep? Please R/R, story may be better then this summary. Skip over the note if yout don't need to read it.
1. Note

Note for non-Trekkies: The Borg are a group of people who have one goal: Perfection. Well, the Queen has this goal, but most of the Borg are just mindless drones who have been assimalated on the Borg's quest for perfection. They go around turning more people into Borg. Borg are like robots, sorta. Most of a drone's body is covered in metal implants. I really, really, _really_ can't explain the Borg. Go Google it if you need more info.  
The Borg Queen: The ruler of the Borg, I guess. I'm not quite sure _what_ she is, other then completely and totally evil and wrong. And did I mention evil and wrong? She sees nothing wrong with taking inisent people and having drones stick tubes into there necks and make _them_ into drones. That can't be very plesent. And it must be painful. I mean, Janeway screamed when she was assimalated... Ok, I'm going OT here. The point is, she's evil. And for some reson, wants Gwen back.  
Gwen's implants: The few she still has can't be removed for some reson. I don't know why, thats just the way it is. So there. They all do _something_, I know that, but don't ask me _what_ they do. Other then make her all Borgish. I think. I need to see if Seven's do anything...  
Gwen's other name: All Borg drones have weird 'names', like Seven of Nine, Four of Six, ect. Don't ask why.  
Voyager: Please tell me you know what a starship is. Please. The USS Voyager, NCC-74656, was traped in the Delta Quadrent by this Caretaker guy for a reson I can't remember at the moment. I need to watch Caretaker again... Anyway, Voyager has 15 decks, and room for 150 crewmembers. She's the newist Starfleet ship, or was before she got lost... And yes, starships are shes. I know this. I just don't know _why_.  



	2. The Voice

Disclamer: If it's from the show, I don't own it. The only people I own are T'Pau and Gwenhwyfar.  
  
The voices... Hundreds, thousands, millions... I hear them, as I sit here, alone.   
The one voice above all the others... The Queen, calling me...  
~Come back to us, Four of Six... We can give you more then Starfleet... Can Starfleet give you perfection? We can... Come back...~  
I shiver, trying to block her voice from my mind. It is hopeless.  
In a way, my life ended the day I was assimalated. I stoped being fully human the day that Seven of Nine's assimalation tubes were thrust into my neck.  
Yes, Seven of Nine. Now almost human, although less so then me. But when she was Borg, she assimalated me. She still hates herself for that.  
Now, I sit here, alone. Captain Janeway refused to give up, and they did get me back... But not the same. I'll never be the same.  
The implants, cold, dead steel on living flesh. The Doctor can't get rid of them without killing me, and my life is too high a price to pay for being human again.  
The voice of the Collective. It will never leave. Ever. It is enough to drive someone insane, that voice. And the voice of the Borg Queen on top of everything doesn't help.  
And the pain. The implants hurt constantly. The Doctor has yet to find a way to make it stop.   
So I sit here, my legs hanging over the edge of the bunk, threatening to hit my half-Vulcan roommate T'Pau if she moves. Not that she will. She's sitting on the edge of her bunk, meditating. Again. Her chants compete with the voice of the Collective for my attention. So far, T'Pau's winning. Thankfully. Even her chanting is better then listing to the Queen and her drones.  
I swing my legs onto the bunk, very narrowly missing T'Pau's head, and roll onto my back. I can't read a PADD, or do anything, really, because she claims that she can't meditate with the lights on. I consider turning them on anyway.  
Nah. Not worth it. She doesn't like me much: Vulcans don't seem to trust humans. And a Borgifyed human is, aperntly, even worse.  
There is a muttered "Ow!" from the lower bunk. I think I may not have missed T'Pau's head. "Four-" she starts.  
"Don't call me 'Four', T'Pau. My name's Gwenhwyfar."  
"Sorry. Gwenhwyfar, could you please ether sleep on the lower bunk or stop kicking me?"  
"If you would use your bunk for sleeping, and meditate on the couch or something, I wouldn't kick you."  
She mutters something like "Humans" and started puting her things away.   
"Vulcans." I mutter back.   
"I'm not a Vulcan."  
"Half-Vulcans, then."  
"Shut up."  
I shut up, staring at the ceiling, the voice of the Collective calling me. Normally, the voice isn't enough to keep me from sleep, but today...  
I climb down the ladder and grab my uniform from the closet.   
"Something wrong?" T'Pau asks. Although she's not facing my direction, she seems to have heard me getting my uniform. Damn Vulcan super-hearing.  
"I'm going to Sickbay." I say, going into the bathroom and changing out of my nightie.  
She doesn't ask why, thankfully. She knows what I am. She knows that sometimes I can't sleep because of the Collective's voice.  
I finish changing, and leave the room, heading for the turbolift at the end of the hall. The night lighting makes my implants almost glow, and I'm glad I'm alone in the hallway.  
I step into the turbolift. "Sickbay." I'm used to the slight vibration, and it doesn't normally bother me. But now, I feel slightly sick as the 'lift moves, and I'm glad it doesn't take long to get to Sickbay.  
I step out of the 'lift into the empty Sickbay. "Doctor?" I call.  
He materializes in front of me. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."  
"I can't sleep." This, coming from anyone else, would start him complaining that he wasn't programmed to deal with sleeplessness and that whoever it was should go back to bed. With me, however...  
"The Collective again?" he asks, taking a med. tricorder and scaning me with it.  
"Yeah... The Queen's calling me." I say softly, sitting on a bio-bed. I fish a pony-holder out of my pocket and tie back my hair, knowing that the Doctor will most likely want to look at my implants, some of witch would be covered by hair if I left it down.  
"The Queen. What is she saying?" He reads the tricorder and sighs. He can look so very human at times. It's sorta freaky.  
"The usual... 'Come back, Four of Six... You don't belong with the humans anymore. You're better then they are...'" I say, doing a very good imitation of the Queen's singsong voice.  
He takes a tool off a tray and starts fiddling with the implant by my ear. I try to stay still, even though it hurts. "Ouch!"  
"Sorry, Ensign." He puts down the tool. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Is the Collective more noticeable then normal?"  
I nod, still wincing.  
"I'll have to check Seven, too... I think it would be a good idea for you to spend the night here."  
I sigh, but lie down on the bio-bed. He comes over and injects a hypospray into my neck.  
"That should make it a bit easier to sleep. Good night, Ensign."  
"'Night." I say, already very sleepy. Soon, I can't keep my eyes open any longer, and I drift into dreamland.  
***  
Review! This is my first fanfic...It stinks, doesn't it? Let me know if it does...or if it doesnt.  



	3. The Vison

~~~FLASHBACK~~~~  
I sit beside a lake. This planet is nice: I'm glad Janeway was able to arrange shore leave.  
Janeway is painting. I've never seen the captain off duty before. She looks different, her hair falling across her face, a few splatters of paint on her clothes. And her hair, too.  
B'Elenna and Tom are some ways away, in the lake, splashing each other with water, laughing and having a great time. It's nice to see B'Elenna not being all Klingon-y for once.  
Even the Doctor's here, taking pictures with his holo-cam. He heads over to where I'm sitting.  
"Ensign, could you turn this way for a moment?"  
I grin and do so, brushing my hair out of my face. He takes a picture. "Thank you, Ensign."  
"Welcome, Doctor." I turn back to the lake again. I don't see the dark shape in the sky.  
B'Elenna sees it first. "Borg cube!" she yells, running out of the lake, soaking wet. Tom follows.  
I jump to my feet, running to the spot the pattern enhance are set up. There is some sort of odd field in the sky that prevents normal transport. I don't know more then that. I'm a medic, not an engineer.  
The Doctor removes his moble emitter and throws it. It lands safely by one of the enhance. He disappears.  
I trip over a root, and in the few moments it takes to get to my feet, the Borg beam in. I see the horrified look on Janeway's face as she has no chose but to tell Voyager to beam the rest of the crew up, leaving me behind.  
A drone beams down a foot away from where I now sit. He/she/it grabs my arm. I try to pull away. It's hopeless.   
A transporter energizes, and I am on the cube. Dark, spooky, and full of Borg. Naturally, I'm scared way past the point of doing anything.   
The voice of the Collective. We did holo-sims at the Academy, complete with sound, so I've heard that voice before. But this is different than it is on a nice, safe, holodeck.  
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distictiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."  
All I can think is that I really, really, _really_ think that shore leave was a bad idea.  
I am forced onto an assimilation table and strapped to it.   
A drone walks right though the force field that covers the entrance to this room. She- I can tell this drone is female- walks to the side of the table.  
"Existence as you know it is over." she says, as she thrusts her assimation tubes into my neck. I scream, in both fear and pain. Then I pass out.  
~~~END FLASHBACK~~~  
Review! This is my first fanfic...It stinks, doesn't it? Let me know if it does...or if it doesnt.  



	4. The Pip

I wake up in Sickbay. The Doctor is standing beside the bio-bed. I must have screamed in my sleep. I've had bad dreams since I was rescued, but not the wake-up-screaming kind. T'Pau, part-Vulcan that she is, would have told me.  
"Ensign! Are you all right?!"  
"I- I'm fine... Just a bad dream..." I say, my voice a bit shaky. I sit up and swing my legs onto the floor.  
He grabs a tricorder and scans me with it. "What was the dream about?" he asks, reading the scans.  
"You know when we met the Nal'Partha, and that captain arranged shore leave for everyone?" Stupid question. Of course he does. He's a _hologram_. "I was on the planet, by that lake... And it was just like when I was assimilated. It seemed almost too real to be a dream..."Tears well in my eyes, and I angrily wipe them away.   
Strange. My neck hurts, right where Seven's assimilation tubes were thrust into my neck when I was assimilated. I press a hand to my neck, but the pain doesn't leave.  
The Doctor sees this. "Something wrong, Ensign?" he asks, redirecting his tricorder scans to my neck.  
I'm saved from having to answer by Seven entering Sickbay.   
"You wanted to see me, Doctor?" She meets my eyes from across the room. I can tell that she's been dreaming of her assimilation too. We are linked through the Collective, as all drones are, the link between the assimilated and the one who assimilated him or her.  
"Yes, I did. Please have a seat."  
She sits on the bio-bed next to mine, one hand absently brushing a strand of hair out of her face. That's not normal for Seven. I'm worried.  
The Doctor starts scanning her. "Seven, have you been hearing the Collective or the Borg Queen lately?"  
"No, I have not."  
"Have you had any bad dreams?"  
She pauses, then admits, "Yes."  
"What about?"  
"I would rather keep that to myself, Doctor."  
"Very well. Other then the dreams, you are in perfect health. You can go."  
She stands and leaves the sickbay. As she leaves, my neck hurts again. I yelp.  
"What's wrong, Ensign?"  
"Nothing, Doctor..." I say. The pain is gone: no need to get him all worked up.  
He doesn't look convinced, but I'm saved again, this time by my commbadge. "Janeway to Cardinal."  
I tap it. "Cardinal here. What is it, Captain?"  
"Please report to my ready room as soon as possible, Ensign."  
"On my way, Captain."  
"Good. Janeway out."  
I stand up, fishing my pony-holder from my pocket. I'll have to braid my hair really quickly in the turbolift.  
"Hold still a moment, Ensign." the Doctor says, walking over. I do so, and he attaches a monitoring devise behind my ear.  
"Doctor, is this really needed?" I complain, wincing.  
"Ether you wear it, or you stay in Sickbay, and as the Captain wants to see you, you have to wear it."  
I sigh, and hurry to the turbolift. "Bridge." The lift starts to move: I feel ill again. Great.  
I quickly braid my hair, wrapping the pony-holder around it as the turbolift stops. I step out onto the bridge, and walk to the ready room door, pressing the panel for the door chime.  
"Come."  
The door opens, and I enter the room, hoping that she won't notice that I think I'm going to be ill.  
"Please have a seat, Ensign."  
I sit in front of her desk, wondering why she called me here. And, for some odd reason, wondering if my hair is a complete and total mess.  
"Ensign, are you all right? You look ill."  
So much for that hope. "Just a bit... turbolift-sick, that's all."  
She nods. "You must be wondering why I called you here."  
I nod, shifting slightly in my chair. My neck is hurting again.  
"Voyager's sensors have picked up a Borg cube about two days away at average speed."  
I nod again. I already know this.  
"Ensign, has the closeness of the cube been affecting you in any way?"  
"Yes." I admit. "I've been hearing the Queen... And I've been having dreams about when I was assimilated..." Great. I'm going to cry. I wipe my eyes angrily with the back of my hand.  
She stays silent for a moment, letting me calm down. "There was one more thing, Ensign.."  
I look up. She's holding something... something small, round and gold...  
"Hard work deserves a reward. As ship's captain, I hereby promote you to the rank of Lieutenant, with the responsibilities and privileges therein." She reaches over and attaches the pip to my undertunic.  
I'm shocked. "I- I don't deserve this..."  
"In the six years we've been here, years away from home, family, friends, you have never given up. Not even when you were assimilated. Starfleet thought that your age would make you an unsatisfactory officer. You have proved them wrong." She smiles. "I'd say you deserve it, Lieutenant."  
Lieutenant. I'm going to have to get used to that.   
"Thank you, Captain." I say, unable to keep from grinning.  
"Don't thank me. You've earned it." The door chimes, and I stand.  
"Come in!" It's Tuvok. I start to leave.  
"Lieutenant?" I almost look around to see who he's talking to, then realize he means me. This is going to take some getting used to.   
I turn. "What is it, Commander?"  
"Congratulations."  
"Thank you, Commander."  
As I leave the ready room and enter the turbolift, I reach up, making sure that the pip really is there. It is. I grin as I order the turbolift to sickbay. The Doctor's going to be surprised. 


End file.
